


trapped in the state of imaginary grace

by Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Birthday Sex, F/M, yep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:08:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22119916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks/pseuds/Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks
Summary: After Akane's birthday celebration, Kogami dusts off his gentleman skills to walk her home.
Relationships: Kougami Shinya/Tsunemori Akane
Comments: 23
Kudos: 199





	trapped in the state of imaginary grace

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [thewrathofbombast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewrathofbombast/pseuds/thewrathofbombast) for the beta read.
> 
> An '80s song lyric as my title? It's more likely than you think. (Title is from Modern English's ["I Melt With You."](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/modernenglish/imeltwithyou.html))
> 
> Now updated.

The chatter of the restaurant's patrons faded as Kogami pushed through the door and went out into the early night. Coat settled around his shoulders with a tug, then he dug in his pocket for a cigarette and lighter. Akane had chosen a spot on the just-shifting edges of respectability, a place where they could pretend to escape their leash and not be judged by well, anyone. No holo-plants, no server droids. No assumptions of even a hint of respectability, which was the last thing a crowd of former Enforcers needed. A smoke was in his mouth as the lighter sparked at the end, waiting for it to catch. It made him grateful for her quiet acknowledgment of the way things were. 

Sometimes it was a blessing.

Nicotine flooded through him as he took his first pull. 

The one oddball in the whole strange mix of Gino, Yayoi, Sugo, and Hanashiro was Shimotsuki, who watched them all with a heightened sense of superiority mixed with a desperate wish to be part of the crowd. Akane had said she was going to be promoted. He hoped the MWPSB was ready. 

Over the course of dinner, he’d noticed that Shimotsuki listened attentively to Yayoi, who treated her with the distancing respect that he’d perfected too well in the crucible of Makishima. It wasn’t his place to say. But he hoped Shimotsuki could deal with her own disappointment.

Something else he knew all too well. 

The ash on his cigarette went down with another drag. 

Cars drove past and people walked by, all with somewhere to be. The lighter and cigs he stuffed into his pocket. He’d agreed to walk Akane home, so he waited, and thought ironically that she was the one person who could hold his leash. There was a crowd out tonight; groups of young people talking and laughing, an older couple holding hands, a group of women in their twenties out for a night on the town. When he’d said yes to Hanashiro in Bhutan, he knew what he would be getting into. But being back here. . . . Smoke twined into the air as he blew it out.

And that was the kick of it, wasn’t it? It was easy with her, more than easy. 

The door opened behind him, spilling out laughter mixed with chatter. The wide smile beamed on Akane’s face as she settled her coat and waved to her friends, chased out by calls of _goodbye_ and _happy birthday_.

Tonight, when she’d arrived and had gone around greeting them saying _hello! how are you?_ and _thank you for coming_ , her coat had slid off of her shoulders and revealed that red and entirely backless dress she wore, and how her soft skin shone under the restaurant lights. Something had hit him like a brick and settled in his stomach and combined with the rest to roll around inside of him as she stopped near. 

"Ready to go?” she asked. Akane’s smile was warm. Almost, and this was the kicker, affectionate. (As if someone like him could do anything but pull her down.)

So he took a pull from his cigarette, and nodded.

Akane began walking towards her apartment, her fingers busy with the final coat button. “Thank you for walking me home.”

“I was a gentleman, once,” Kogami said. He blew out a lungful of smoke into the chill night air. “My skills are rusty, but they aren’t gone.”

A hint of amusement played in the smile that crossed her face. Her purse settled on her shoulder as she tucked her hands in her pockets. “I’m glad I can help you work out the kinks.” 

“Well, I should thank you,” he said, “for staving off my obsolescence.”

Merriment flashed in her eyes. “What would happen if I didn’t?” 

“Well, without you to keep me on my toes,” he said, “I’d spend my sad life drinking coffee, reading books, and never going out like the old crank I am.”

“It is true that you are old,” she said, humor in her voice, “but you’re not really a crank.”

“Are you sure about that?” The humor infected him, and a smile broke out, for a second, on his face. “I’m just biding my time until I can finally become a hermit. I hear there are some nice caves high in the mountains.”

A burst of laughter rang out. “I don’t think that is going to happen.”

“Are you already attacking my hermit credibility?”

“No, not at all.” They stopped at a crossing, Akane’s face lit by the neon on a local sign. Her eyes reflected the pink light as she looked up at him, eyes bright. “So assuming this does happen, will I have an invitation to this cave?”

Smoke blew out of his mouth as he looked down at her, something in her look warming in his body. “You can come by any time.”

“Well, I look forward to visiting you there.”

“Hospitality is the least I can offer, Inspector.” The world was likely outside of his skill set, but if she asked for it he’d see what he could do.

A disapproving hum met him. “I know you know better than to call me that.”

"Old habits.” The grin was there and quickly gone as he took another puff from his smoke. His hands were stuffed into his own pockets, but he held out his elbow towards her, looking down with a question in his eyes. Their eyes met, hers alive as she slid her arm through his. She hugged his upper arm in towards her body, the vague scent of her—perfume? Lotion? Shampoo?—drifted upwards. 

The light changed and they crossed the street, the silence now sliding into something easy between them.

They walked towards her apartment, the noise of the living city giving an energy to the night that made everything come alive. When they walked too close, her hip bumped his. Another pull came from his smoke as her hand rested warm on his arm.

“We never settled that,” he said, breaking the silence. The humid SEAUn air came back to him, the musty smell of the car. Her voice, reminding him that they were not what they once were. Not recalling was in the quizzical turn of her eyebrows, in the tilt of her head. He prompted, “What I should call you.”

“Oh.” The memory came back suddenly, catching her eyes as she looked down. That strange relief at having her there had been mixed with a soul-crushing terror that she might be hurt badly or, unthinkably, wind up dead. “You already call me Tsunemori,” she allowed, “though to be honest, I think we know each other well enough for you to use my first name.”

“Only if you use mine.” He’d thought about this a lot, actually.

“I—” She swallowed whatever she was going to say as she blinked up at him, her hand tightening on his arm. “All right.”

“Only if you want.” Well. All he could do was wait and see what she did. He finished his cigarette, tossed the butt away. 

There was a pause as they walked together, the streets now more respectable than they were before. She bit her lip, finally saying, “I’m glad you came back.”

“I had to,” he said. The look she gave him reminded him of Tenzing, and Bhutan. How he had finally faced some things about himself. Doing this right was tough. But maybe worth it, in the end. It had not been something he’d brought up with Akane, and he wasn’t sure he was going to open that cracked door. So instead, he went with, “I was living a hyper-oat-less life.”

She didn’t push, but her smile was brittle as she looked down. As they walked on, a pharmacy now stood out as familiar, a coffee shop, too. They were close to getting her home. 

“Everyone deserves a second chance, you know,” she said after a pause, her voice subdued. The distant look, soon gone, that crept across her face pulled at his unspoken fears. Could she still hear the ringing report of the gunshot? Or maybe that was all him, bound up in Makishima’s laughter.

“I suppose they do.” 

They stopped outside of her apartment building, looming into the night above them. 

“Well, Akane,” he said, looking down at her, into her wide brown eyes. The golden light deep within them glinted as she gazed back. Stopping himself from tucking her hair back behind her ear took an act of will. That smile he had, just for her, crept onto his face. “Happy birthday.”

Akane Tsunemori was not a hugger. Still, she threw her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. His arms wrapped around her, and he felt her weight tight against his chest. The words sounded in her body as her breath ghosted across his ear, saying, “Thank you.”

“Yeah.” The smell of citrus-something clung to her and caught his nose while he was close. It was in her coat, her hair, the skin of her neck. 

A brief kiss landed on his cheek as they drew back. 

Eyes caught as they paused, not letting each other go. That night from a few years ago surfaced in his mind, filled with distant jungle sounds as he could hear her shift in his bed. That she was strictly there to arrest him was not the entire story, not exactly. And now. . . Her hands were on his jaw, her thumbs stroking his cheekbones.

In retrospect, he didn’t know how it started. Sometimes he had thought, in his years abroad, about how it would feel to hold her like this. Sometimes, though it would be a stretch to say he was proud of this, how her lips might part beneath his. If he were a different man, and this was a different time. 

Her mouth was softer than he could imagine. Her lip balm tasted of grapefruit 

She sighed against his lips. 

They broke the kiss. Forehead held against hers as they stood there, her breath hitting his face. The warm touch of her fingers on his neck made his skin shiver. Though the kiss was brief, it awakened something in him, and he prayed that she felt the same pull to him that he felt to her. The catch in her breath was mirrored in his, and her tongue wet her lips. He had to swallow to avoid kissing her again.

“That was a hell of a way to say goodnight,” he said, his voice quiet. 

If it was a mistake, he would go. No harm, no foul.

“Come inside,” she said, her whole body tripping over the question. And he knew why.

Asking this almost killed him, but their past—no, _his_ past--had brought them here. This act could ruin her career. “Are you sure?” 

“I am,” her hand slid across his jaw, her thumb caught briefly as it moved across his lips, “Shinya.”

The thrill from hearing his first name from her now shivered down his back. He fought to still his hands as he offered her every broken and worn-down piece inside of him, saying, “If you want me, I’m yours.”

She pulled him behind her into the impersonal building lobby and hit the call elevator button. Almost shyly, she gave him a chaste kiss while they waited, leaning up with her hands on his arms. The intensity that he put into his own response soon had their mouths opening, eager to slide his tongue against hers, eager to feel her tongue against his teeth. The elevator arrived. Somehow, they got into it, Akane hitting her floor before returning to him. They made out like teenagers on their first date, her hips moving beneath his hands as she pushed him back against the elevator wall.

The elevator stopped at the button-pushed hallway, opening on light brown walls and pleasantly neutral carpeting. There was a standing plant rendered in well-lit hologram partway down the hall, and another at the end. An attempt to appeal to everyone’s taste which entirely missed the fucking mark. 

It was a place that Sibyl would want her Inspectors to live their hue-cleared lives, he’d groused before, but he was too busy kissing Akane to care, now. They almost fell through her door, which she locked shut behind them as he discarded his coat and shoes. Her own shoes hit the wall as she kicked them off, and he moved behind her to help her slide her own coat off her shoulders, revealing the soft skin of her bare back. 

He hung it on a hook as her head tilted back towards him, her lips parted. Then her breath caught as his hand trailed down the skin to the top of her waist. A thousand things he could say to her shot through his head, but he also knew he was no Casanova. 

He ran his hand, flat, now, back up, swallowing at the feel of her naked skin beneath his hand. Voice caught and low, he said, “You look beautiful.”

She slid her arms around him as she turned, her hands pulling his hips close as she grabbed his backside. His clothed erection pressed hot against her stomach. “So do you.”

Enjoying the friction of having him pressed against her, she moved her body against his as she kissed his neck. The pressure against his cock almost made him see stars. He had to swallow a groan as his own body ground against her. 

With rising desire inside of him, he gasped, “Do I need—”

Hands tightened in the blue fabric of his shirt against his back as she shook her head, almost whispering, “Birth control.”

Assigned by an OBGYN as mandated by the system, he knew. It was an effective way to keep the population stable, another way in which the government stretched into their lives. But he was not going to argue about it, now. Needy, she pulled him into a kiss as she drew him deeper into her place. The room was wide and tall in the darkness, he remembered, with a staircase leading upstairs to her workout room and balcony. There had to be a bedroom upstairs, too, though he had never seen it. It stood out in the shadows as they navigated the vast, empty space and fell, together, onto her wide couch.

Needing to feel her hands on his body, he tugged his shirt off and tossed it away before made his shaking hands undo and slide out of his pants and underwear. Meanwhile, her dress hit the floor in a rustle of fabric, immediately followed by her bra. Thumbs hooked into the waistline of her pantyhose and panties; he helped her get them off. 

He knelt between her legs, taking in the sight of Akane, naked, wet, and wanting. They hadn’t shut the large blinds, so she was lined in shadow and light from the city outside. Her breathless panting matched his own. 

Trying to make this last, his hands ran slowly up her legs and then cupped her breast. His thumb ran over her nipple, caught in the thin light. A hum came from her at his touch, and she slid a leg around him and pulled him closer. The wanting was in her own eyes, mixed with a knowing look that he understood all too well. That smile crept over his face as he kissed her hip, her stomach, her breasts, and landed on her mouth. 

Hands traced over his back, his chest, as her mouth opened under his in anticipation. A thumb ran across his nipple, almost languidly.

Settled between her legs, he rocked his cock against her entrance, undone by how wet she was for him. One of her hands came down, helping to press him in as he slid through her dampness.

Both of them groaned as his cock caught, almost sliding into her body. 

It was too much, it was everything. That passion infused his kiss as he leaned down, his hands moving down her breasts to her waist, and then sliding into the wet warmth between her legs. A moan escaped her as he touched her, his fingers gliding inside her. Her own hands reached for him, a gentle touch on his shaft that almost undid him as she stroked him, her fingers moving slow and steady to drive him over the edge. 

Finally, she sat up and pushed him back so that he sat on the couch, his cock erect between them. Firm fingers grazed over him, coating his shaft with the dot of precum. She straddled him and kissed him as she lined them up. A hand ran down his chest as she lowered herself, pressing him into her body. 

Alive with being inside of her, his head fell back as she rolled her hips.

A strangled groan came from his throat, now sweating and needy at her touch. The pressure was too much, not enough. The swell of her hips met his hands, the push-pull on his cock was almost too much as he moved his own hips. The exterior lights shone in her eyes, one hand snaking around his shoulders as she moved with him, getting to know him and his rhythm as he got to know her and how he fit her body. Soon they chased release with increasing urgency, the sound of their bodies meeting broken by their gasps and moans and panting. His fingers came down to circle her clit. 

Akane reached her own first. One hand threaded through her hair and he kissed her neck while she rode out the sensation, her walls pulsing around him, heightening the pull in his cock. Breath dried the sweat on his shoulder as she paused, the minor motion of her hips still chasing an echo. He traced his hands up and down her spine and almost came when she sat up again, shifting her body around him, to kiss him gently. 

Then, she laid her hands on his chest and started moving her hips in pursuit of friction, taking in as much of him as she could. He went in deep, the slide of her walls almost making him go mad. On the edge of his own collapse, he held off for as long as he could as he watched their joined bodies become one. Soon, he was holding her close as his body took over and he came, his cock pulsing inside of her. She kissed him gently while he came back to himself. 

She moved off of him and they laid down, his head on her salt-coated chest. Her fingers ran through his hair as he held her, riding on that dopamine brain wave that followed. They stayed that way for a while, sometimes kissing each other as they drifted in and out. The cool air of the apartment seeped in and he was, the next time he awakened, beneath a warm blanket. They shifted and rearranged and somehow wound up exactly as they were before, the panties she had put on soft beneath his hand. On the edge of sleep, again, her hands ran through his hair and her heartbeat was steady beneath his ear.

“Akane?” On the edge of sleep, his voice was rougher than usual.

“Yeah?”

“. . .Say my name again.” 

He felt her amusement in his body as she hummed and kissed the top of his head.

“Sleep well,” she said, voice tender in the air, “Shinya.”

**Author's Note:**

> _i'll stop the world and melt with you_   
>  _You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time_   
>  _there's nothing you and i won't do_   
>  _i'll stop the world and melt with you_
> 
> Still thinking this might be a many-parter? We will see.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at [jediofbooksandsnacks](https://jediofbooksandsnacks.tumblr.com/).


End file.
